


We're not alone

by mulberrymelancholy



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Self-Indulgent, Spoilers, heavy on the comfort, the comfort was for me after episode 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29896104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mulberrymelancholy/pseuds/mulberrymelancholy
Summary: Episode 9 traumatised me and I needed some comfort so I wrote this in like 30 minutes at 2 in the morningCherry winds up at Joe's restaurant after the beef with ADAM went south and they take comfort in each other.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 14
Kudos: 152





	We're not alone

It was a force of habit, putting out the empty wine bottle and two glasses.

Somehow, despite dropping Kaoru off at the hospital himself, he still pulled out the nearly empty red from the secret bottom shelf that they hid from customers. When he realised what he had done, Kojiro finished off the bottle himself, pressing his fist to his forehead as he let the emotions of the night wash over him. The frustration of losing. The anger at ADAM. The fear.

He heard the restaurant door open, and somehow knew. A tired, knowing smile crept onto his face even as something warm settled in his heart.

“Are you an idiot?” he asked without turning around. “Sneaking out of the hospital like that…”

“No problem,” Cherry said, his voice as pragmatic as ever. “It’s only a scratch.”

“You look like a mummy!” Kojiro tried to be stern, he truly did. But even he could hear the warmth and relief in his voice.

Later, after he finished off both glasses of white he had poured when Kaoru fell asleep, he lifted the other man against his chest, holding him as gently as he could to avoid aggravating the injuries. Kaoru grimaced, but didn’t wake.

Kojiro carried him up the stairs to the apartment above the restaurant, setting him down softly on the bed.

He turned around and took a step before a soft voice stopped him.

“Not the couch,” Kaoru whispered.

Kojiro felt something tug in his heart. It ached. “Wasn’t planning on it,” he said, his voice just as soft. “But I don’t want you to kick me out of the bed tomorrow when you realise I haven’t showered.” He dropped a small kiss onto Kaoru’s forehead, so soft that he doubted the other man had felt it at all. But it reassured him. That Kaoru was here. That he was – mostly – okay. That he was Kojiro’s this time.

The shower helped him calm down, gave him a chance to get his hands to stop trembling. He tried to push the thoughts away – of Kaoru flying through the air and falling hard, of Langa surpassing him, of the boy that would end up facing ADAM. Eventually he let them flow through him, lingering for a moment like a water droplet, before dripping into the drain.

Kaoru curled into him as soon as he slipped under the covers, a hand weak with morphine gripping his shirt. Kojiro wanted to hold him back, but he was afraid of hurting him, so he simply held the hand in place and brushed a soft foot against Kaoru’s leg to assure him that he was there.

Kojiro was just fading into sleep when Kaoru spoke, so quietly he wouldn’t have been woken by it a few moments later. “I was in love with him, all those years ago.”

Kojiro swallowed. He’d suspected – it had always been this tense, unspoken thing between them – but it was the first time Kaoru had brought it up. “We all were, a little bit, I think.”

“You weren’t,” Kaoru argued, voice impossibly small. “You called him a prick.”

“He was a prick,” Kojiro chuckled. “We were teenage punks, we were all pricks. But ADAM – somehow he always felt bigger than that.” Kojiro shifted, turning onto his back and pulling Kaoru onto his chest. He felt his breath just above his heart and it reassured him more than anything the nurses had told him at the hospital. More, even, than Carla’s optimistic prognosis. "He was an amazing skater. It was impossible to not admire him when he almost always looked like he was flying. When he let us pretend that we knew who he was. When he called us special."

“You weren’t in love with him, though.”

Kojiro sighed. “I suppose I just had someone else.”

“So did I.”

Kojiro bent his nose into Kaoru’s hair, squeezing his eyes shut and breathing in the man that had caused him more pain in this lifetime than anyone had any right to.

“I didn’t want to lose,” Kaoru said, and his voice broke as a sob wracked through him.

Kojiro had never hated ADAM before. Not when he realised Kaoru loved him more despite the thirteen years of friendship they already had. Not the first time that Kaoru came to him for comfort after ADAM had said something that dashed his hopes. Not even the day ADAM left for America and Kaoru looked at him with eyes that told him he’d never be enough. But he hated ADAM that night, to the very core of his being. It wasn’t a fire that blazed and destroyed everything in its path. It was a smoldering thing, hot and stagnant and deadly. He held onto it because the hate was easier than the hurt. The hate was something he had earned, after all these years.

“I know,” he whispered, holding Kaoru as close as he dared.

Some time later, as Kaoru’s sniffles subsided, he asked, “What are you thinking about?” while tracing small patterns on Kojiro’s chest.

“How I’m going to train Langa to punch ADAM.”

Kaoru let out an amused, disbelieving laugh and tilted his head to look in his eyes. “What?”

“Well, he’s gotta make sure he isn’t holding his thumb ‘cause it’ll break, you know? If Langa gets hurt we can’t have a rematch.”

Kaoru decided to play along, his eyes dancing with a tired mirth. “Why not have Reki do it?”

“Reki’s the sensible one, he’d never do something like that.”

Kaoru turned back into a more comfortable position, right over Kojiro’s heart again. “Shadow?”

“Too loud, ADAM will see him coming from a mile away.”

“MIYA?”

“I don’t want a boy that young anywhere near to ADAM.”

“Fair enough,” Kaoru chuckled, and his laugh was warm and light and so full of an unspeakable fondness. “We should sick the girls on him. Have them team up and everything.”

“Are you _insane_ ,” Kojiro said in a stage-whisper. “I don’t actually want anyone to _kill_ the guy.”

Kaoru’s next laugh was full and belly-deep, but cut off by a yawn. His grip on Kojiro’s shirt tightened. “You’re right. I’m afraid of what they’d be able to accomplish if they set their minds to it.”

“Damn straight.”

“…Thank you, Kojiro,” Kaoru said softly.

“For what?” He was drawing circles on Kaoru’s less-injured arm now.

“For staying. For not letting me be alone.”

“You certainly didn’t make it easy.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kojiro dropped another kiss onto his friend’s – his lover, his family, his world – forehead. “I know.

I know.”


End file.
